Ray Beadle is coming to Kent — and for anyone who loves hard-driving, deeply felt blues guitar, this is the show you will not want to miss. On Saturday 22nd August 2026, Rockin’ Roots Events is proud to bring one of Australia’s most decorated blues artists to The Oast in Rainham, Kent, for what promises to be a scorching summer evening of world-class live music. Ray has earned his reputation the hard way — on stages in Memphis, Chicago, and across Australia and beyond — and he brings every note of that hard-won experience to the stage with him. This is the real thing.
There are blues guitarists, and then there is Ray Beadle. Born in Sydney in 1978, Ray picked up the guitar at the age of nine — inspired by hearing his father play at home — and spent the next three decades making it his own. His guitar and vocal styles evoke the great blues legends of the past, but nobody could mistake him for anyone else; he has forged something unmistakably personal from a lifetime of listening, learning, and playing.
His pedigree is extraordinary. A three-month residency with the house band at BB King’s Blues Club in Memphis. Three tours of the United States, including performances at Buddy Guy’s legendary Blues Club in Chicago and a string of Southern blues festivals. Years spent performing and recording with the Foreday Riders — an outfit so respected in Australian blues circles that musicians call it the University of the Blues. And a top-eight finish at the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Memphis — one of the most competitive events in the global blues calendar.
It is not by chance that Ray Beadle has become a favourite with blues fans on both sides of the world. He is the genuine article: his music comes deep from the heart and soul, rooted in a deep understanding of his instrument and what it is capable of in the right hands.
Ray’s most recent album, Bound To Get The Blues (2023), is his fifteenth release and arguably his most focused. Recorded live off the floor to tape at Studios 301 in Sydney, it is a gritty blues rock record built around seven new Beadle originals, with a band that has been playing together for twenty years. The result is the kind of album you can only make when everyone in the room knows exactly who they are.
We set out to do straight blues rock, tough Texas style, Ray says. I’ve done albums in the past that were more soul/funk, but we’ve done this one for the guitar players. The album opens with Charlene — a hypnotic, sludgy riff that grabs hold and doesn’t let go — and barely lets up across ten tracks. The guitar solos are largely improvised, stretched out, and played like a man with something to say. Which is precisely what Ray Beadle i
★ Chain Blues Awards — Best Album, Best Song, and Best Male Artist
★ 2007 Sydney Blues Society — Australian Blues Music Performer of the Year
★ 1998 Australian Blues Music Award — Best Male Artist
★ 1997 Australian Blues Music Award — Best New Male Artist
★ International Blues Challenge, Memphis — Top-8 finish, competing against the finest blues acts on the planet
★ BB King’s Club, Memphis — Three-month residency with the house band — a defining chapter in Ray’s story
★ Buddy Guy’s Blues Club, Chicago — Performed at one of the world’s most iconic blues venues
★ The Foreday Riders — Years performing and recording with Australia’s revered University of the Blues
★ International Blues Challenge — Top-8 finish in Memphis, competing against the finest blues acts from around the world
★ 15 Albums — A body of recorded work spanning more than twenty-five years, from acoustic Delta blues to hard-driving Texas rock ★ Three USA Tours — Performing at blues festivals, clubs, and stages across the American South
Ray’s influences run deep. Albert King is the name he returns to most — his singing and his songwriting, he was a special guy — alongside jazz-blues crossover masters Pat Martino, George Benson, and his close friend Chris Cain. His music draws from the Delta, from Texas, from Chicago, and from the swing era of jump blues. But what he brings to the stage is something that cannot be traced to any single source: it is the sound of a man who has spent his entire life doing nothing but playing the blues.
Live, Ray Beadle can shift from a bare-bones acoustic performance — spare, intimate, conjuring the Mississippi Delta — to a full-band electric assault that recalls the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Gary Clark Jr, and Doyle Bramhall II at their most muscular. The common thread in all of it is the same: total commitment, and the unmistakable feeling that every note matters.
★ An exhilarating guitarist, an enthralling singer-songwriter, and an extremely talented performer. Ray Beadle is the genuine article.
★ His music comes deep from the heart and soul — stirring emotions in people with his guitar genius.
★ If you live anywhere and you see a Ray Beadle gig advertised near you, do not hesitate. — Hawker Heights
Ray Beadle has been playing the blues for over thirty years. He has played the biggest stages in Australia, the most hallowed rooms in Memphis and Chicago, and he has stood up in front of audiences all over the world and made them feel something. On Saturday 22nd August 2026, he brings that lifetime of music to The Oast in Rainham, Kent — one of the best small rooms in the county, close to Rainham Station, with the kind of intimate atmosphere that puts you right in the room with the music.
A Saturday evening in August. One of Australia’s finest blues guitarists. A venue in Kent, UK. You already know what to do
The Oast is one of Rainham’s most iconic buildings — constructed in the early 1870s by the Wakeley Brothers, it has overlooked Rainham station for over a century. Originally built for drying hops, it was saved from sale in the 1970s and converted into a thriving community centre run entirely by volunteers. That history gives the place a character that purpose-built venues simply can’t manufacture — exposed brickwork, a sense of occasion, and the kind of intimate atmosphere that puts you right in the room with the music.
The venue sits directly adjacent to Rainham Station with parking at the rear — easy to get to, easy to get home from. For a show like this, it is the perfect setting. There is also plenty of local public car parking nearby.
